The Happiness Port Project

This weekend, Story Master and Story Mistress, graciously held a “stay at home weekend” with half off of merit badges, with new merit badges commissioned, extra gift points for reviewing, and more awards for interacting with one another. We may have to be physically distant, but we don’t have to be socially distant.

I took a half day on Friday and to get into the camaraderie spirit, I decided to create an activity for the Writing.com community. The Happiness Port Project, a take on my Happiness Box Project, where people can write and show what has made them happy and grateful during this time period. Here is the link: The Happiness Port Project

I also think my Happiness Box Project is a journal. One suggested journaling and I journal through this. I also told them that I can write to my heart’s content, but I have found when I also confide in others, I gain perspective. I like writing, but I have found it more helpful to share my feelings too. As I learned through therapy, I shouldn’t be afraid to share my feelings and I can tell you I learned this too: you can’t know what you don’t know. I’m not going to learn that from myself, I have learned that through talking to others. The Happiness Box Project has helped me, but I also think it’s more beneficial if you have a therapist or a group you can confide in and help you. I’ve found that I can write goals all I want, but when I’m held accountable by others, I accomplish those goals more so than relying on myself.

Anyway, this Happiness Port Project has gained a lot of fanfare and people think this is a great idea. I have 6 participants and while I hope it grows, I’m grateful. I can’t wait to read their entries and I can’t wait to work together in a community.

We will get through this together.

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thehappinessboxproject

Creator of the Happiness Box Project Initiative, a project where you write your happiness or gratitude each day, then open the box in the New Year. The Initiative is to teach joy and gratitude, to pass it on to others.
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2 thoughts on “The Happiness Port Project”

Thanks for sharing the link to you Happiness Port Project. I hope it continues to snowball. I like how you reframed the situation suggesting that although people are physically distant, they don’t have to be socially distant. As you and millions of other people hunker down at home, I’d like to share with you the English translated script from an Italian video sent to me last evening by my cousin. I think it’s an excellent piece that puts things into perspective.

An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans

Stop. Just stop.
It is no longer a request. It is a mandate.
We will help you.

We will bring the supersonic, high speed merry-go-round to a halt
We will stop
the planes
the trains
the schools
the malls
the meetings
the frenetic, hurried rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you from hearing our
single and shared beating heart,
the way we breathe together, in unison.
Our obligation is to each other,
As it has always been, even if, even though, you have forgotten.

We will interrupt this broadcast, the endless cacophonous broadcast of divisions and distractions,
to bring you this long-breaking news:
We are not well.
None of us; all of us are suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the earth
did not give you pause.
Nor the typhoons in Africa, China, Japan.
Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India.
You have not been listening.
It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time, hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way,
buckling under the weight of your needs and desires.
We will help you.
We will bring the firestorms to your body
We will bring the fever to your body
We will bring the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs
that you might hear:
We are not well.

Despite what you might think or feel, we are not the enemy.
We are Messenger. We are Ally. We are a balancing force.
We are asking you:
To stop, to be still, to listen;
To move beyond your individual concerns and consider the concerns of all;
To be with your ignorance, to find your humility, to relinquish your thinking minds and travel deep into the mind of the heart;
To look up into the sky, streaked with fewer planes, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, smoky, smoggy, rainy? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
To look at a tree, and see it, to notice its condition: how does its health contribute to the health of the sky, to the air you need to be healthy?
To visit a river, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, clean, murky, polluted? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy? How does its health contribute to the health of the tree, who contributes to the health of the sky, so that you may also be healthy?

Many are afraid now.
Do not demonize your fear, and also, do not let it rule you. Instead, let it speak to you—in your stillness,
listen for its wisdom.
What might it be telling you about what is at work, at issue, at risk, beyond the threats of personal inconvenience and illness?
As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about quality of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky, and all of us who share this planet with you?

Stop.
Notice if you are resisting.
Notice what you are resisting.
Ask why.

Stop. Just stop.
Be still.
Listen.
Ask us what we might teach you about illness and healing, about what might be required so that all may be well.
We will help you, if you listen.